Short Flint life

[neothutu]

I have an L&R Flint lock Model 2100. My problem is that I get perhaps 10 to 18 shots out of a flint (knapping about every 3 shots) before the flint requires replacement. Now, I have been told that the "timing" is incorrect. The flint strikes the upper 1/4 of the frizzen. The advise that I have been given is that the flint needs to contact the frizzen at about the 1/2 way point. To achieve this, the hammer must be heated and carefully bent to adjust the position in which it will strike the frizzen. I would like to hear some opinions on the subject before I proceed with bending my hammer. As an aside, I have already tried shimming the filint, this helped but did not make a huge difference. Also, I have already purchase an additional hammer should I over do it and break the one that I have. Thank you, I will appreciate any advice that is offered.

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

I am by no means an expert in this matter but out of curiosity, what type of flints are you using?

 

[Dave K]

You mounting it bevel up or bevel down? I mount my Tom Fuller flints with the bevel up. I have the same lock. Actually my problem was the frizzen was incorrectly hardened and it ate flints. There were many of us that had this lock, that was made in 2001, that had troubles. They must have had a bad batch of them. After getting the frizzen correct and the replacing the springs with "correct" ones, it works OK now. I wish you good luck with L&R's support team.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Which one is the model 2100?

 

[neothutu]

I am using natural fiints - 5/8. I install them Bevel down. The comment about the frizzen hardening makes sense to me. It is something for me to consider. A picture of the model 2100 L&R can be found on thier website.

 

[Birddog6]

It is a L&R Classic with bridle. I suggest you contact L&R and tell them of the problem you are having & see if they will repair it. As Dave said, most likely you need the frizzen retempered & new springs, as I ran into the same thing with some of their Jaeger locks in 2000-2001. I had WCY repair the lock & get it working pretty good & could get about 25 shots out of it.
2 years later at Friendship I asked L&R about the lock & etc. & they told me "Oh, you need the stronger Jaeger springs"..... They told me they had 2 sets of springs, regular ones & stonger ones now, since they had so much trouble with them. Then they wanted to Sell me a spring, that didn't set real well with me & after some conversation, I got 2 new springs for nothing. After all, it was a factory defect & the Knew it........ Now I get 25-40 shots out of one.

But I would call them First & talk to them & see what they say about it first, then proceed from there.

I take it you have tried Bevel up & bevel down. Try the jaw leather thick & thin & with a notch in the rear against the screw so the flint is deeper in the jaw, this lets the flint strike lower.

Also, if the firzzen spring is weak or the frizzen cam is incorrect it could be slapping back against the flint & dulling it, as mine was doing.

I don't think I would bend the cock, as there are thousands of them working correctly & they are cast all the same with that geometry, thus I doubt it is the cock angle.

Good Luck.......

 

[Mike Brooks]

It's quite possible the flash hole is lined up with the cutting edge of your flint. The gases coming out of your flash hole is blowing off your sharp flint edge. I've had this trouble with L&R locks before. I've always soldered in a shim where the cock ledge sits on the plate, thus lifting the flint edge above the flash hole level when the cock is at rest.
:results:

 

LC Rice did a great article a few years back on locks and touch specifically on the frizzen
He stared that most frizzens made today are to hard and even went through the color chart of the spark to read what you had and even gave points on how to correct it .
I believe muzzle blast printed the story .

As to your lock , something here doesn

 

[roundball]

Here is my reason :
You say you place the flint in bevel down yet it still contacts

 

No round ball I didn

 

[roundball]

a properly tuned lock should still place the flint in the jaws somewhere close to

 

[B.Habermehl]

Plus we have one more variable, frizzen spring strength. If the frizzen spring is a trifle weak the frizzen will bounce back and strike the flint instead of staying open. This happens as the hammer is falling and happens so quickly is hard to diagnose. I would still bet on a subtle geometry problem. Remember these parts all start out as molded wax pieces and can easily be bent a bit at this stage. The hammer may need a slight bending, or use a thinner or thicker flint. Lock tuning is more craft than science.
BJH

 

Maybe my struggle was with the wording in the previous post...sounds like we're in synch

i think so as well . what i was getting at is that maybe this is as simple as having a flint thats to thick . with a thick flint the difference from bevel up and bevel down is greater . IE 1/4 inch thick there is roughly a 1/4 inch difference in contact point .
BUT if that fint is 3/8 thick and bevel down is still contacting at 3/4 then bevel up will be well below the 1/2 line of the frizzen face . We have to remember that the bottom jaw dictates the angle of fall unless the flint is bevel down , which gives a wider arch and thus the top jaw dictates the contact point

now thats for a square flint. That is place just off the face or touching the face at 1/2 cock .
However if you were to place the same thickness flint but in a rectangular cut in that lock you could not properly align the flint at half cock unless the geometry of the cock fall was off

 

[roundball]

My head hurts but yes...it made sense...!
::

 

[Old Charlie]

When I first started shooting my GPR it ate flints like crazy! But the more I shoot it the better it gets on flint life. Also I have some flints that last a lot longer than others. So there can be some differance in the rock it's self.
Old Charlie

 

[Stumpkiller]

Sure. Tom Fuller makes some flints square (usually for pistols) and some flints longer than wide. They are hand made from natural material and subject to variations. I hope and assume someone else beside Tom is knapping all of our flints. Otherwise, if he steps in front of a car we're S.O.L.

 

[loishd]

I don't knoew about everyone else but I was trying to follow thru on this thread but now I'm not sure if I'm sitting or standing.!!! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

I don't knoew about everyone else but I was trying to follow thru on this thread but now I'm not sure if I'm sitting or standing.!!! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

I'm ROFLMAO......... Tell Tom to look both ways before stepping off the curb. Remember in the UK it's right, left, right, walk.....

:crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[roundball]

Sure. Tom Fuller makes some flints square (usually for pistols) and some flints longer than wide. They are hand made from natural material and subject to variations. I hope and assume someone else beside Tom is knapping all of our flints. Otherwise, if he steps in front of a car we're S.O.L.

I can just picture it now...the entire world supply of flints being produced by one little old man in a denium apron, sitting on a stool, bent over with a tiny hammer knapping out one flint at a time...great googly-moogly !!
:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[flashpanner]

head hurts from banging your head on frizzen!